Apologies to non-IR folks on the list, but this might be of interest to some of you…
Dear colleagues and friends, What’s the Point of IR? A conference convened in celebration of 50 years of International Relations at the University of Sussex In celebration of 50 years of International Relations at Sussex, the Department of International Relations<http://www.sussex.ac.uk/ir/> is convening a conference on the 10th and 11th of December 2015 entitled ‘What’s the Point of IR?’ The conference asks: ‘what is the distinctiveness, the value, and the purpose of IR today?’ Over the past fifty years IR has changed strikingly, shifting from a narrow focus on the relations between states to a much more wide-ranging and diffuse concern with a spectrum of inter-societal and global processes. Yet, IR faces challenges on at least three fronts: from other social sciences that have eroded IR’s onetime comparative advantage as the scholarly endeavour concerned with the ‘international’; internally, as IR has become home to multiple theoretical traditions and sub-fields that rub against its academic coherence; and practically, as IR faces ever-increasing demands for non-academic—and especially policy—relevance. With the aim of reflecting on these three inter-linked challenges, the conference asks: * Is IR a coherent and singular discipline? Should this be its aim? * What distinctive analytical value does IR possess today? What, if anything, should its distinctive intellectual purchase be? * Where does IR’s practical importance and value lie? What should IR’s practical functions and purposes be? * Who and what is IR for? And whose interests should IR serve? The conference brings together scholars and public intellectuals from within and beyond IR to debate these questions. Organised as a single conversation that unfolds over the course of two days, the conference includes a public lecture and six plenary roundtable discussions organised around a set of key questions. The objective is to foster a genuinely organic conversation that speaks to the core aims of the conference while allowing for diversity and enabling useful departures. Speakers include: Tarak Barkawi, LSE Walden Bello, University of the Philippines Ken Booth, Aberystwyth University Catia Confortini, Wellesley College Lawrence Freedman, King’s College, London Lene Hansen, University of Copenhagen Betsy Hartmann, Hampshire College John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield Patrick T. Jackson, American University Beate Jahn, University of Sussex Sam Knafo, University of Sussex Stephanie Lawson, Macquarie University L. H. M. Ling, The New School Craig Murphy, Wellesley College Peter Newell, University of Sussex Inderjeet Parmar, City University Fabio Petito, University of Sussex Adrienne Roberts, University of Manchester Justin Rosenberg, University of Sussex Laura Sjoberg, University of Florida Jennifer Sterling-Folker, University of Connecticut Teivo Teivainen, University of Helsinki Diana Tussie, Flacso Achin Vanaik, University of Delhi / TNI Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania Catherine Weaver, University of Texas at Austin Cynthia Weber, University of Sussex Thomas G. Weiss, CUNY Rorden Wilkinson, University of Sussex Yongjin Zhang, University of Bristol For more information and to register please go to: http://whatsthepointofir.com/ Registration closes on the 15th of November. Attendance is free, but numbers are limited. With warm regards, Synne L. Dyvik, Jan Selby, Rorden Wilkinson Sent from Windows Mail -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
